Revolt of Horea, Cloșca, and Crișan
The revolt started in 31 October 1784, in the village of Curechiu, Hunedoara, when 600 Romanian serf led by Cloșca were attacked by hussar troops while attempting to go to Alba Iulia and enlist as border guards in the imperial regiments, despite governor's Samuel von Brukenthal ban of further conscription.
The revolt was directly related to the poor conditions of feudal serfs in the Principality of Transylvania, where Orthodox Romanians lacked political equality with Catholics.
Several villages from Hunedoara entrusted the peasant Horea, whose official name was Vasile Ursu Nicola, to present their complaints before the Austrian Emperor Joseph II.
Horea traveled to Vienna often in the years from 1779 to 1784 to present to the emperor the injustices to which the Romanian peasants in Transylvania were subjected, but with no success, the last audience being in April 1784.
In the summer of 1784, Emperor Joseph II ordered a military conscription in Transylvania, those enlisted were to receive weapons and no longer perform serf duties, and the lands and houses they were using would become their own.
The conscription was canceled by the governor of Transylvania, Samuel von Brukenthal, under pressure from the Hungarian nobility who felt their class privileges were threatened, which further displeased the Romanian peasants.
[1] The peasant Crișan however, in violation of Samuel von Brukenthal's order, gathered 600 serfs from different villages on 28 October 1784 and convinced them to go to Alba Iulia and enlist as border guards in the imperial regiments.
The people set off towards Alba Iulia over the mountain, bypassing the town of Brad to avoid being stopped by the Hungarian nobility, they spent the night in the village of Curechiu.
Then, part of them went upstream, towards Abrud, via Mihăileni, while another group went downstream, conquering Brad, Baia de Criș, Ribița, Hălmagiu, Hălmăgel, Ociu Aciuta, and Pleșcuța.
[2] In the following two days, the peasants destroyed and burned all the noble courts in the communes of Sulighet, Bretea, Ilia, Sârbi, Gurasada, Tătărești, Leșnic, Dobra, Roșcani, Geoagiu de Jos, and others.
[4] The revolt targeted the nobility but also non-Orthodox common people, regardless of ethnicity, because the Romanians considered they unfairly received opportunity for advancement in society.
Afterwards, the imperial forces, led by Colonel Johann von Vins, decisively defeated the peasants at Câmpeni (Topánfalva, Topesdorf) on 14 December 1784, causing a significant loss of morale and military strength for the rebels.
[8][9] In the following days, while pockets of resistance and small skirmishes occurred, the imperial army had regained control over most of the region, with leaders of the revolt being hunted down.
[10] More than 600 rebels were captured, out of which 120 were sentenced to death, 37 penalties were delivered initially but they were leter changed to imprisonment as a result of the amnesty of the emperor, with an exception regarding the three leaders.
[5][11] Crișan hanged himself on the night before the execution, while Horea and Cloșca were subjected to the harshest punishment provided by the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana, by being broken on the wheel.
Horea and Cloșca were transported in two separate carts, accompanied until the moment of their execution by Romanian Orthodox priest Rațiu from the Church in Maierii Bălgradului.
The nickname "Cloșca" comes from the peasant custom of playfully giving various names to fellow villagers and from his reputation as a hardworking householder who accumulated wealth.
Following their execution, Emperor Joseph II ordered that "all Romanians who are undoubtedly known to have committed mistreatments should be relocated with their cattle and tools", hundreds of peasants who took part in the revolt were displaced to Banat and Bukovina.
[19][20] In 1785, Jacques Pierre Brissot, who would become a leader of the French Revolution, published an open letter to Joseph II in which he asserted the right of royal subjects to protest.
